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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
Photo by Frank N. Meyer 
A NEW BAMBOO GROVE IN THE CAUCASUS, ESTABLISHED RECENTLY BY THE RUSSIAN 
GOVERNMENT 
The Russians have foreseen the great commercial possibilities of the timber bamboos of 
the Orient, and have started a grove of considerable size at Chakva in the Caucasus, which 
experiment is a success, according to the investigations of Mr. Frank N. Meyer, our Agricul- 
tural Explorer. 
New methods of steaming the bamboo poles under pressure have been 
devised, and a demand far exceeding the supply has sprung up for the cheap irrigating pipes, 
telegraph poles, scaffolding material, ladders, and furniture which are made from the timber 
already cut from the grove (see text, page 904). 
ness of the possibilities which progress 
in agricultural research is creating. 
“You will soon have all the crops in,” 
is the remark of those who have given 
the matter little thought. Our own lives 
change with every moment of time, and 
so do the lives of plants. The strains of 
potato which our grandfathers grew are, 
with few exception, different from the 
strains in vogue today; and, fitting their 
lives into the various conditions of soil 
and climate, the original wild South 
American. species of potato, Solanum 
tuberosum, assumes in the hands of men 
a thousand different forms. 
In whatever parts of the world new 
forms may spring into existence it matters 
not; our potato-growers should be able to 
try every sport of importance and every 
wild, hardy species, whether it comes 
from the manse of a Scottish parson, is 
discovered as a wild species along the 
Paraguay River by an American rail- 
way bridge-builder, is found among the 
mountains of Colombia by a _ Jesuit 
priest, is gathered by a forest ranger in 
